Mythos: Justice
Justice is a short story by , telling the tail end of the Toa Mokha’s mission to the Southern Continent, and the death of Galek at the hands of Jethryn. Story Chapter 1: The Reason One thing that newcomers would find interesting about the Southern Continent is that it had no suns. There were no two singular dots of light in the sky that illuminated everything around them in blue daylight. Of course, the twin suns as seen from Metru Nui might have been hidden somewhere behind the mass of stormy grey clouds that had covered the Continent’s skies during the past week. Sometimes, white light would pierce through the storm clouds and illuminate part of the land. However, although the black-clad traveler on the dirt road didn’t know about the nature of the continent’s light source, he did know that the continent wasn’t usually this quiet. Matoran lived here, although they were quite different from the Matoran that he had known in Metru Nui. Their arms, legs, or neck were commonly elongated or twisted away from their natural shape, while in their minds the Matoran were harsher, more rugged, and as '' some people '' wanted him to believe, more savage. It was on this basis that the Toa of Fire, Galek, had led three other Toa in a mass slaughter of the Matoran, village by village. After a week, all the nearby Matoran had heard the reports, and none of them dared to travel out of their villages, for fear of coming across the Murderers. Now, of the six Toa who had originally landed on the continent, only two were left. One was Galek, who had started the whole incident. The other was the black-clad stranger. His name was Jethryn, and of the four murderous Toa, he had killed the most of all. The reason as to why was not bloodthirst, but power – as he had trained himself in the use of his Toa power instead of learning from another, he had come across uses of his power that others would not be taught to use – such as superheating his natural lightning power into an explosive blast, capable of destroying a living, biomechanical being with one strike. He had not been thinking of killing Matoran when he arrived on the Southern Continent in the first place – he didn’t even know that any lived there at that time. The spur to massacre that Galek gave them was the death of Khaati, the youngest of those Toa, who Jethryn had become close friends with. Galek then used his silver tongue to convince all but one of his comrades to see the fixed Matoran as savage brutes, and to deal retribution to them as such. Eventually, that one who had abstained from the bloodshed uncovered Galek’s deception and ambitions in front of her fellow Toa and the Matoran. Galek, enraged, assaulted her and another of the Toa who had joined her, seeming to kill them both. Another Toa, overwhelmed by the guilt at what she had just contributed too, killed herself. Galek had disappeared after that day, but Jethryn had a good guess as to where he was headed – to the northern edge of the continent, where he would return to Metru Nui and provide a falsified account of what had happened, which would benefit himself. Then he might return and cause even more innocent deaths. And Jethryn wasn’t ready to let that happen. So he headed North, at double pace, taking side roads. With luck, Galek wouldn’t know he was pursued until it was too late. Chapter 2: The Ambush Whatever light lay behind the mass of clouds was getting dimmer now, and darkness was falling all around him. For the first time in the day, Jethryn noticed the blue glow of his heartlight. It could probably be seen from far away – and the same might be true of the glow of his eyes beneath his Akari. That might ruin his attempts at surprising Galek. Looking around for something to stop the light form being seen, his hands closed around the sheath on his back. It once stored his electric blade, but that had been lost in the massacres, and now he had nothing to sheath back there. An idea struck him, and he pulled the sheath on his back, and began tearing at the cloth and protoleather, turning the sheath into a thin black square of fabric. He then drew it over his shoulders to his chest, fastening two ends together over his heartlight, and then pulled more of the fabric over his head. Even if it didn’t stop his eye glow, it would prevent his Akari from being recognized. Combined with the plastering of blood and mud that had darkened his white highlights, he was unrecognizable as the black and white Toa of Lightning who had set foot on the northern shores. Jethryn activated his Akari and blinked. As soon as his eyes opened again, he was looking at himself from twenty bio in the air. As he turned his head, the viewpoint in the sky changed as well. Turning fully around, he saw that a figure traveling on a road that led straight to where where Jethryn was. Though he could not be seen well, the combination of red heartlight and eyes covered with green visor marked him as Galek He also saw, a few bio away, a large rock that he would be able to hide behind. Turning off the mask, he ran to the rock, and then peered out from behind it. In a few minutes, Galek came in view. He came walking closer and closer to the rock, but Jethryn waited until he was close enough for him to jump upon him. And that is what he did – or at least, intended to. Whether he either misjudged Galek’s location, or whether the Toa of Fire had got wind and jumped, Jethryn came down upon hard rock, stinging his hands with which he had put most of the weight of his fall. Galek turned around to see who had fallen on him. Jethryn darted out of his direct sight – he knew that Galek’s mask, when activated, could melt through almost anything with a beam of heat. The Toa of Fire had not been able to get a good look at his attacker when Jethryn kicked with his right leg, like a blade, into Galek’s leg, causing him to trip and fall over. Jethryn stood up, and advanced toward the Toa of Fire. But soon he found a mass of flame leaping up in front of him – produced by one of Galek’s arm-mounted flamethrowers. The fallen Toa seemed to be trying to figure out who was attacking him, not attempt to burn them, but the makeshift hood did catch fire, stinging at his head. Frustrated, Jethryn grabbed the cloak and pulled it off with one grab. His blue heartlight and Akari were now fully visible. The Toa of Fire muttered “Jethryn?” Chapter 3: The Battle Jethryn had just been identified by someone who could burn him to death. Why not use his signature powers now? He tensed his hands, and felt the electric crackles forming in them. Never taking his eyes off of Galek, while moving slightly to stay out of the way of Galek’s mask power, he held the electricity within his hands, while he controlled it with his mind to become more restless, more volatile, until it glowed orange form the heat. He had been wary of doing this again – the powers that ensued had caused the deaths of hundreds in the past few weeks – but it seemed the only sure way of saving his life. As he finally released the explosive burst lightning, he reached out with his mind to the electrical machinery inside Galek’s mask and flamethrowers. He saw five bolts of white-hot lightning, which for a split second illuminated everything around them – he could see, in those moments, Galek’s red and yellow armor colors. Then he saw the flames and smoke coming from Galek’s head and arms, and pieces of red-hot wreckage flying off of him – his mask and flamethrowers had exploded, and what had remained on him was burning him. He yelled in pain. “What is this?” He finally said. “I was leading you to become a leader, a conqueror, and now you stab me in the back!” “You would make me a leader who ruled with fear and lies,” Jethryn spoke for the first time, “and that is not the leader I want to be. If you weren’t going to send me off to my death like you did with Khaati.” The pained Toa grunted, then ran toward Jethryn, with his burned arms outstretched in front of him. Jethryn ducked underneath and tackled him by the stomach, bringing both of them down. The two of them wrestled on the ground for a moment, Jethryn attempting to immobilize Galek’s arms, and Galek attempting to break free. Finally the Toa of Fire let go, only to rear back and slam his burned arm, full force, into the mouth of Jethryn’s mask. His Akari fell off, the result of the heat melting off the couplings of the mask, and seriously burning Jethryn’s mouth as well – he would be unable to wear any regular Kanohi ever again. The shock of the pain was just long enough for Galek to wrestle himself out of Jethryn’s grip, and with a mighty kick throw his opponent on his back. The Toa of Fire ran to finish off Jethryn. With a sudden thought, Jethryn pulled back both his legs until his enemy was almost on top of him, then pushed out with both legs into Galek's chest, his left leg more than his right, and at the same time twisted his body to the right, so that he threw the Toa of Fire to the ground beside him. Before Galek could get back up, Jethryn was on top of him, with his left leg crossing over both of his enemy's, the other leg on top of Galek's right arm, his left hand grasping the Toa of Fire's left arm, and his right hand on the rogue Toa's neck, ready to supercharge Galek's brains if he made any attempt at retaliation. Chapter 4: The Execution "Heh", the Toa of Fire said, his snakelike voice sending shivers down Jethryn's spine. "You're a quick-thinking Toa -- one who could make a difference. But what is your reason? Why did you turn against me and my dream?" "Because your dream is flawed and bent," Jethryn replied, "and has caused the death of four of your own brothers and sisters, two by your own hands, in addition to the hundreds of Matoran you guided them to slaughter." "They were savage animals!" Galek spat. "They were sentient beings!" Jethryn retorted. "And they only turned savage because you made them do it! You knowingly sent Khaati to his death to get us to murder everyone on this continent -- what sort of a dream is that?" "Oh," Galek said, slowly. "You've come to kill me as a traitor. And somehow that's better than all you're accusing me of doing." Jethryn hesitated—he hadn't thought about what grounds he was about to execute his former leader on. "Go ahead," Galek continued. "Exact your vengeance in anger. It's much better than letting me go to uphold your stupid Toa Code, isn't it." For a few seconds, there was silence—the dull red eyes of Galek, behind the fragmented green visor of the Kideli, staring into the glowing blue eyes of Jethryn. Finally, the Toa of Lightning slipped his hand away from Galek's neck. "Vengeance isn't reason enough to kill you," he said. "Something you probably never thought of. Keep your life, but don't use it to harm Matoran or Toa again -- or I will kill you." He stood up, and stepped off of the body of the Toa of Fire, and began to walk away. He could feel some dirty liquid oozing out of his mouth—he would have to find some way to seal up the injury before he went unconscious. But before he had walked long, he heard a sound behind him. Turning around, he saw the figure of Galek charging toward him. Jethryn tensed his hands, and sent a blast of lightning into Galek's body, shocking him to the ground, and within a few seconds Jethryn had both his hands at the Toa of Fire's neck. "You might have known better," Jethryn said, as he released the energy in his hands, sending white-hot electrical energy into the Toa's neck. Galek screamed, then the scream was abruptly cut off, and the dull glow in his heartlight suddenly flickered and died. Cast of Characters *Jethryn *Galek *Khaati (mentioned) *Gelisa (mentioned, not named) *Kaylos (mentioned, not named) *Arphax (mentioned, not named) Trivia *In the very first draft of the Toa Mokha story, Jethryn killed a Toa of Fire named Galek, who was accused of being a spy by another Toa who was actually a Makuta in disguise, and the event drove Jethryn into his exile. The story of Galek's death continued to be a critical moment in the Jethryn story, although Galek changed from being the victim to the villain. *The banner was initially created by and modified by Stormjay Rider.